SAG-AFTRA

On Stage

THE SEA IS A RESTLESS WHORE is a one-act musical written by Brian Boone. It originally debuted at the University of Oregon and washed up on the shores of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival West Coast regional convention. “It was the black sheep of the festival,” Mackenzie recalls proudly. In this musical Mackenzie played the androgynous pirate “Buckfoot.” The play got a second premiere in Los Angeles at the Berubian Theater Company main stage. “Getting the chance to revisit the character was a gift. There are always times as an actor where you look back and wish you did things differently because you suddenly have another understanding about the character,” she says. Mackenzie also expresses that she would one day like to see the play done as a feature film.

SEX LIES AND SALAMI was Mackenzie’s chance to stretch her own sketch and comedy writing muscles under the direction of Chris Berube. In this show, Mackenzie wrote a sketch called “Drag Race,” which was literally a race of drag queens in the Castro district of San Fransico. Mackenzie played one of her favorite stand by improve character types: a female anime character and spoke some Japanese in the sketch.

THE OMELETTES is the improv group in which Mackenzie spent a summer performing in North Hollywood’s Theater district. Performances were held weekly. The group focused on short form with audience suggestions. They also performed at the North Hollywood Theater Row Theater Festival.

THIS SHIP OF FOOLS was a project the emerged from the University of Oregon divised theater class. The students spent a term studying devised theater where they incorporated clowning, vaudeville, and reading Sebastian brant’s collection of poetry SHIP OF FOOLS. At the end of the term the students wrote a vaudevillian musical variety show that also had a storyline woven through it about coming to the new world in 1497. The show had such an outstanding reception from attendance that they did a second run after the summer break.

In JOSEPH & THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAM COAT, Mackenzie took on the role of the “Narrator,” a role that requires the character to sing for most of the two hour rock musical. To prepare for this role, Mackenzie trained with vocal coach Jimmy Arnold from The Four Lads. “It was like training to be a pop-star in a concert,” she reflects.